The Augurey
by righteousanger
Summary: It let out a low, throbbing cry that could be heard throughout Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, and dove towards the Forbidden Forest, just as fat raindrops began to pound on Ginny's tear-stained face. She was the last person to see Harry Potter as they knew him.


**Title:** The Augurey

**Rating:** K

**Summary:** The Augurey, as if having heard what she said, took a look at her standing under the giant beech, swaying softly with the oncoming storm, and bent it's head to her. It let out a low, throbbing cry that could be heard throughout Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, and dove towards the Forbidden Forest, just as fat raindrops began to pound on Ginny's tear-stained face.

She was the last person to see Harry Potter as they knew him.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter et al. belongs to J.K Rowling, while the plot of this belongs to me.

**Warnings:** EWE. Is it bestiality if it's a 'permanent' animagus transformation mating with it's 'own' animagi species? Well, whatever that is, there's a brief allusion to it. Past, canon HP/GiW

**Author Notes:** So, I had sat down with the sincerest of intentions to write a HP/SS PWP as a follow-up to Ronald Weasley: Lightweight Extraordinaire, but Harry stubbornly told me I was going to write this. I had even already steeled myself to write my first sex scene! Alas, what the characters want, the characters get.

**Augurey**:  
>M.O.M. Classification: XX<br>The Augurey, also known as the Irish Phoenix, is a native of Britain and Ireland, though sometimes found elsewhere in Northern Europe. A thin and mournful looking bird, somewhat like a small and underfed vulture in appearance, the Augurey is greenish black. It is intensely shy, nests in bramble and thorn, eats large insects and fairies, flies only in heavy rain and otherwise remains hidden in its tear-shaped nest.  
>The Augurey has a distinctive low and throbbing cry, which was once believed to foretell death. Wizards avoided Augurey nests for fear of hearing that heart-rending sound, and more than one wizard is believed to have suffered a heart attack on passing a thicket and hearing an unseen Augurey wail. Patient research eventually revealed, however, that the Augurey has since enjoyed a vogue as a home weather forecaster, though many find its almost continual moaning during the winter months difficult to bear. Augurey feathers are useless as quills because they repel ink.<p>

-_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_

* * *

><p>The leaves of the great beech tree were swaying in the breeze over the lone form resting in the tree's shade. He was leaning against the beech's trunk, staring at the lake as the sun glinted off of the waves, blinding him. He would occasionally throw a Quaffle at the tentacles that surfaced at uneven intervals, catching it as it was thrown back, and watching as the Giant Squid dove under again.<p>

A shadow was cast over his down-turned face. While he stared blankly at the ground, the faint smell of flowers wafted with breeze and over him.

"I'm not in the mood, Ginny." he stated quietly, not looking up, even as a bare foot nudged at his hip.

"Harry, really. It's been two days. Surely you don't mean to sit under here for the rest of your life now that-" The nudging increased in frequency.

"Maybe I will. I'm not in the mood for any of the shite that's been going on." he growled, his glasses opaque, reflecting white back at her as the sun reflected off of his now upturned- and very stern- face, unnerving her with his straight gaze.

"You can't be serious."

He just stared back at her unflinchingly.

"Will you ever be in the mood, then?" she asked quietly. The _for me, for anything_ went unsaid, hanging between them, swaying with the leaves in the breeze; silent, but _there_.

"I don't know. Maybe. Not for a while." he replied, just as quietly.

He looked back towards the lake and chucked the Quaffle violently at the surfacing tentacle. The tentacle quickly threw it back and swam to the other side of the lake. It was as if it sensed his quiet, controlled anger and despair; being the only one to recognize it and his need to be alone.

"I waited for you, you know." She mumbled, a quiver in her voice, as she sat beside him, wrapping her arms around her legs. She laid her head on them, turning to look at him.

She was neither touching him, nor the tree.

"I know. I had hoped- I had hoped you wouldn't." He turned his head from her, looking towards the Forbidden Forest. "You see, I broke it off for two reasons, Ginny. I wanted to protect you-"

"Har-" she started, undoubtedly to try to impress upon him that she hadn't needed _protecting_, but he just turned to glare at her sharply, quieting her. He started again as his gaze returned to the forest.

"and you needed it. You- you can't know what it's like- endangering every single person you ever talk to- you ever _meet_. You _can't. _ And it'll be like this for me for the rest of my life; always fighting off Death Eaters, fanatics, being relied on to defeat all the evil in the magical world. I knew it would be like this- this awkward fumbling for conversation with everyone, trying to be alone with them wanting to congratulate me for _murdering_ someone, when all I want to do is fly, or play catch with the Squid. I knew I'd be different, in the end. People don't understand that I _died _and _killed_ two nights ago, and then was hailed as the ultimate hero- the Man-Who-Conquered- while I feel disgusted with myself! I can't bloody take it anymore!"

As he was speaking, his voice had gotten progressively louder, him shouting in the end. The leaves had stopped moving, even though the breeze had progressed to a gale. When he had turned back towards her, he met a tearful, brown-eyed gaze, one that was suspiciously farther from him than it had been before.

"You- you'll never been in the mood, will you?" It wasn't really a question, just a statement that fell from her lips as she looked towards her bare feet. They were clenching and unclenching in the cold. "I-I…thank you, Harry. For all that you've done, for explaining. I think I understand now…" she trailed off in a whisper, getting up off of the ground.

She turned away with a sniffle, picking up the Quaffle that had been pushed away by the wind, and throwing it to the tentacle waving through the water.

"Thank you. Can you please tell that to Ron and Hermione? I think that they should hear that too."

His words swayed with the beech leaves in the now calm, natural breeze. When Ginny turned back around, startled and with a question on her lips, Harry was no longer there.

There was a small ripple in the lake, and a small, greenish-black Augurey appeared, batting at the Quaffle in the Giant Squid's grip with it's claws. It looked a futile endeavor, as the Augurey was almost painfully thin and looking rather undernourished.

"Goodbye, Harry Potter." She whispered into the wind, watching as the Augurey and the tentacle swerved through the air.

The Augurey, as if having heard what she said, took a look at her standing under the giant beech, swaying softly with the oncoming storm, and bent it's head to her. It let out a low, throbbing cry that could be heard throughout Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, and dove towards the Forbidden Forest, just as fat raindrops began to pound on Ginny's tear-stained face.

She was the last person to see Harry Potter as they knew him.

* * *

><p>The wizarding world would be rebuilt, and the searches for Harry Potter would be called off by the words "He's where he wants to be." from Ginny. They would move on, and create a new, rejuvenated world, but they would always remember Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, the Man-Who-Conquered, the Savior of the wizarding world, and wish him well.<p>

Throughout the next several millennium, a haunting Augurey with bright green eyes could be seen alternatively diving throughout the Forest, acting as a rain forecaster on the Astronomy Tower, perched quietly between the graves of Headmasters Dumbledore and Snape, or playing an odd game of catch with the Giant Squid and a rather worse-for-wear Quaffle.

It was a constant at Hogwarts, save for a decade-long disappearance, from which it returned with a mate and five little chicks who would become the ancestors to the auguries that would call Hogwarts home for the rest of time.

Occasionally, Ginny Longbottom would be seen standing under the beech tree by the lake at Hogwarts, either paying the Augurey and it's family a visit, or watching it play catch with the Squid.

All was well.


End file.
